How many acres of forests are cut down each day?

Twenty nine million, eight hundred thousand trees(29,800,000) are cut down every day in the world.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports (2005) that the Earth's total forest area continues to decrease at about

• 35 714 hectares (89 000 acres) per day. Or
• 1488 hectares (3720 acres) an hour. Or
• 25 hectares (62 acres) a minute. Or
• 0.4 hectares (1 acre) every second.

An American Football field measures 0.53 ha (1.32 acres).

Many people think the actual figure is much higher, because these figures were provided by each country, and may not include illegal logging.

In 1927, scientists of the United States Forest Service Allegheny Experiment Station did a survey of the Allegheny State Forest. They found an average of 335 trees per acre.

Using that number the number of acres above would translate to 29,800,000 (Twenty-nine million, eight hundred thousand) trees cut down every day in the world!

(That number is really just a guess. Twenty years after the first survey, they were finding 497 trees per acre. By 1972 they had 997 trees per acre. In 1998, the latest survey, they were back to 346 trees per acre.)